Explore and Produce

Fulfilling the energy demands of an ever-growing world population and supporting its economic and social development is a complex equation:

Resources are available in abundance, but they are limited by geological, geopolitical, and economic constraints.

To limit global warming, the International Energy Agency (IEA) recommends optimizing the energy mix to change the trajectory of energy-related CO2 emissions.

At Total, we are doing everything we can to meet short-term challenges while preparing for future ones and to offer affordable, reliable and clean energy. Our goal is to become the responsible energy major.

Total explores and produces oil and gas in fifty countries. Pictured: Moho Nord in the Congo.

Total's workforce is innovating to make LNG even more accessible. For example, teams in Ivory Coast and Pakistan are developing a project to build a floating storage and regasification terminal.

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Utilizing our expertise in oil and gas

According to the IEA, hydrocarbons will continue to play a significant role in satisfying world energy needs and will represent more than 40% of primary energy in 2035 in the IEA’s 2°C scenario. Thanks to projects we are developing around the world, our expertise, and our capacity for innovation, Total will contribute to the supply of oil and gas that the world requires. However, we aim to steadily decrease the carbon levels of our energy mix in favor of hydrocarbons that emits less CO2.

Some oil and gas reserves are located in deep sea beds. To extract them, our exploration and production teams use expertise acquired over the course of 30 years, building innovative infrastructure that has made Total one of the world's leading deep offshore operators. Approximately 40% of our operated production of hydrocarbon comes from deep offshore.Some of the most iconic embodiments of our expertise include riser towers installed in 2001 during the Girassol project in Angola for deep offshore development, and last year's installation of underwater electric wellheads in Dutch waters, an advancement in the development of marginal fields. This expertise allows us to face new technological challenges—ultra-deep offshore, small remote deposits, complex resource extraction, and extreme weather conditions—all while ensuring project profitability.

Natural gas is also an essential part of our growth. Today, gas represents nearly 50% of Total’s hydrocarbon mix, and we have established a goal of increasing its percentage in our hydrocarbon mix to meet demand for electricity. In electricity production, gas emits half the CO2 of coal during its life cycle.

Another advantage to gas is the ability to transport it in liquefied form over long distances. LNG, or liquefied natural gas, opens the door to international markets and commercial outlets for resources located great distances from regions with high consumption, offering greater flexibility in supply management. Total is one of the world's leaders in the full LNG chain. Our expertise lets us take part in complex, competitive projects like Yamal LNG in Russia. Yamal is expected to start up in late 2017 and will have a production capacity of 16.5 million metric tons of LNG per year.

Supplying responsible energy

We believe that supplying responsible energy means meeting the strictest safety standards.We also do everything we can to reduce the environmental impact of our installations:

We reduced routine flaring by over 50% between 2005 and 2015 at installations that we operate, as we did at the Ofon 2 oil field in Nigeria, where routine flaring ceased completely in December 2014. We intend to reduce it by a further 80% between 2010 and 2020 and eliminate it completely by 2030.

We are investing in carbon capture, use, and storage technologies, which we believe are efficient ways to achieve carbon neutrality. We will dedicate a significant portion of our R&D budget to such technology (up to 10%).

We have also set a goal of improving the energy efficiency of our installations by an average of 1% per year between 2010 and 2020.

Finally, we constantly seek to incorporate host countries and their citizens into our business, as is illustrated by the Betosala program in the Congo. The program helped Congolese small businesses bid on contracts for the Moho Nord project.

Total: Investing in the future of energy

Though hydrocarbon plays a core role in Total's goals, we believe that we must diversify our supply of energy. As such, we wish to develop renewable energy and incorporate new activities that support it.

We are a major player in solar energy. Working with our subsidiary, SunPower, we make high-performance cells and design turnkey power stations, like Solar Star in the United States, the largest photovoltaic solar power station in the world.

To meet customer demand, we want to go one step further by selling integrated solar solutions that combine solar power, storage, and digital optimization tools for distributed electricity.

We also invest in bioenergy to provide fuel and products that are friendlier to the environment.